Wish I could help. I went through a year of unemployment about ten years back, after risking everything to go into business with a partner.

(I know only too well how much misery loves company, so I'll prattle on about my own bad experience and hope it doesn't bore or depress you too badly. In the end, I've come out of the deal relatively OK, and I hope you can find hope in knowing that.)

We had been doing pretty well, but were still paying off startup expenses when our entire industry -- typesetting -- suddenly became obsolete and we eventually had to declare bankruptcy. Not only did I lose my current job, not to mention my business, but I lost my line of work -- *no* more jobs existed doing what I had been doing for 20+ years.

Unlike you, I wasn't alone in the world -- but having a wife and three young children entailed extra responsibility as well as providing support. I was able, at least, to provide some "off the books" help to my wife in her self-employed work, so I wasn't completely idle and unproductive during the long months of joblessness.

I eventually found a fairly lousy job, and spent about two years bouncing from one unsatisfactory job to another before falling into my current almost-OK situation. I'm still not doing as well as 10-15 years ago, but working life is tolerable, and life in general is good.